Tabaxi (ta-BÆK-see)

Tabaxi, also known as jaguar people and cat-men, were a race of feline humanoids native to the jungles of Maztica and Chult.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Tabaxi were taller than most humans at six to seven feet. Their bodies were slender and covered in spotted or striped fur. Like most felines, Tabaxi had long tails and retractable claws. Tabaxi fur color ranged from light yellow to brownish red. Tabaxi eyes were slit-pupilled and usually green or yellow.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Tabaxis are carnivores

Additional Information

Social Structure

Tabaxi were a reclusive people who often avoided interaction with other intelligent races. However, as each tabaxi possessed a specific feline trait, some had an innate curiosity that compelled them to travel and seek out stories, artifacts, new experiences, and knowledge, never remaining in the same place or obsessing over the same piece of lore for too long.
n general, tabaxi did not care for wealth, but they had an almost obsessive interest in ancient artifacts, relics, and magic items, but not for the items themselves, as much as the stories and secrets they held. Once an item had been thoroughly examined and studied, and its secrets revealed, it would lose its allure and the tabaxi would quickly lose interest and pass it on.
Not all tabaxi were motivated by curiosity to leave their homeland, however. Some found safer ways to satisfy their fleeting obsessions by becoming traveling minstrels and tinkers, often accepting interesting objects and stories as payment for their services.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Tabaxis were originally from the lost continent of Maztica, and were introduced to Faerun due to the slave trade. In the following centuries, many escaped and ended up living in the jungles of Chult instead, turning it into a new homeland following the destruction of Maztica in the Spellplague.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Each tabaxi has a single name, determined by clan and based on a complex formula that involves astrology, prophecy, clan history, and other esoteric factors. Tabaxi names can apply to both males and females, and most use nicknames derived from or inspired by their full names.
Clan names are usually based on a geographical feature located in or near the clan’s territory.
The following list of sample tabaxi names includes nicknames in parenthesis.
Tabaxi Names: Cloud on the Mountaintop (Cloud), Five Timber (Timber), Jade Shoe (Jade), Left-Handed Hummingbird (Bird), Seven Thundercloud (Thunder), Skirt of Snakes (Snake), Smoking Mirror (Smoke)
Tabaxi Clans: Bright Cliffs, Distant Rain, Mountain Tree, Rumbling River, Snoring Mountain

Major Language Groups and Dialects

The Tabaxi language was an ancient form of the Payit language. Those who spoke modern Payit and knew what to listen for could usually understand about half of the Tabaxi words they heard.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Tabaxi society was built around clans. Clans were split evenly between males and females with 3 to 12 young. Each clan had several Hunts each made up of two to eight individuals. The Hunts patrolled the area around the clan's lair. Although tabaxi lairs were sometimes just temporary, they were more often small villages of ramadas. Each ramada was built from wooden poles with grass roofs.
Clans were led by elders. About half of the time, leaders were aided by shamans. Clans tended to avoid each other and did not engage in trade. Tabaxi considered trade to be demeaning but in rare instances would use third-party agents to trade for them.

History

Because of the black market and slave trade that brought them to Faerûn, some tabaxi made the jungles of Chult their home after escaping captivity. Tabaxi minstrels primarily lived in and around Port Nyanzaru, but hunters roamed the entire peninsula.
When the tabaxi started wandering out of their homeland of Maztica, rumors followed about strange happenings there, but the tabaxi themselves said little about them. This only compounded when the continent was lost to the fires of the Spellplague.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Tabaxi had few enemies and only the most degenerate clans would attack members of other intelligent species without good reason.

Lifespan

about 80 years

Average Height

6' - 7'

Average Weight

200 - 250 lbs